When alone on a sled, her slight frame is a torpedo that propels more than 60 mph down the icy chute of skeleton, a belly-down solo sliding sport in which the seemingly fearless Megan Henry still competes.

Yet it was not an extreme lifestyle, but a proactively responsible one, that nearly did in the 26-year-old Roxbury native. More than a year ago Henry suffered a dangerous respiratory illness she linked to the NuvaRing birth control method distributed since 2001 by pharmaceutical giant Merck & Company.

Last week, to stem a growing class action lawsuit regarding this sometimes fatal side effect, the multinational corporation announced in lieu of a publicized trial it will quietly settle out of court for $100 million.

Today, that's not much comfort to Henry, who from her Lake Placid home in upstate New York will watch via televised feed her old skeleton teammates chase Olympic gold. She would rather be in Sochi.

"I did not join the lawsuit for monetary gain," said a chagrined Henry, who starting September 2012 was sidelined for eight valuable months of training after she developed blood clots in her lungs. "A financial settlement is not even close to (the trial) I wanted, and it's a huge slap in the face."

Her dream of racing in Sochi was once on the fast track. In March 2012 she claimed the Women's Skeleton title with an aggregate first place finish of 3:46.06.

"It looked very good at that time," said Henry about her chances of making the elite Team USA.

Instead she's facing a weighted five-digit payout, though she doesn't yet know how much because among the 3,800 plaintiffs the distribution will be scaled.

This week, she doesn't much care. She'd rather be in Russia.

By July 2012 she clocked almost two years of training in the sport that if caught performing on most American roads would yield the rider a speeding ticket. She was a top contender.

Then began shortness of breath.

Perhaps it was all that heavy training in the higher Utah altitudes, she thought. Then it got worse. By end of summer she was having what was tantamount to a ceaseless asthma attack.

Henry, who a few years ago at American University was considered for the Olympian role because she was a standout U.S. Army soldier and athlete, came home to Roxbury and was quickly brought to a doctor. Blood clots in the lungs were the culprit, the same thing that a year earlier led to the sudden death of her college friend Erika Langhart on Thanksgiving 2011.

They both used NuvaRing.

"My daughter did not have a chance. She had a massive double pulmonary embolism within a moment," said Karen Langhart from her Arizona home. "We're devastated, and for Merck to settle means they'll never be held accountable."

Lately this issue has been pushed to the foreground by a Vanity Fair article last month featuring the story of Langhart and of Henry.

Merck communications director Lainie Keller said that extensive outside research and clinical trials have followed the safety and efficacy of the FDA-approved product. Risk of clotting is present with any hormonal contraceptive, is higher when different medicines are combined, and a word of caution is printed on the packaging.

She said that by previous internal findings, out of every 10,000 women on NuvaRing as many as 12 should expect to develop venous embolism. Compare that with as many as five of 10,000 women not on NuvaRing. These statistics are for women who are not pregnant. Should a woman become pregnant while using NuvaRing, pregnancy heightens the risk of embolism.

But ultimately, she said Merck "denies fault under the agreement" and indicated business will continue as usual. "Nothing is more important to Merck than the safety of our medicines and vaccines and the people who use them," said Keller. "Merck employees, and our families, use Merck medicines, too. There have been more than 44 million U.S. prescriptions filed for NuvaRing, a product now available in more than 50 countries.

"We stand behind the research that supported the approval of NuvaRing," she continued, "and our continued work to monitor the safety of the medicine."

That doesn't sit well with Barbara M. Henry, first selectman of Roxbury and mother of the aspiring Olympian. She said it is vastly important young women educate themselves on the product and have a full understanding of the dangers.

"She was absolutely robbed of her dreams," said her mom. "It's a travesty this is not taken off the market, because this is killing and maiming young healthy women."

Megan Henry admitted more excitement than envy at seeing her teammates compete. Henry knows it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to reach the Winter Games. Really, one has to be training steadily at least four years in advance, she said.

So where will she be for the 2018 Winter Olympics? "South Korea," she said, even before the question was up.

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